Telemundo Kicks Off HD Production in Mexico
By Laura Martinez -- Multichannel News, 11/20/2007 6:25:00 AM
Consistent with its mantra of controlling its own destiny by producing all of its content, NBC-owned Telemundo this month kicked off production of El Engaño (The Betrayal), the first telenovela to be shot in the network’s Mexico City studios and its first high-definition production in Mexico.
“Filming in Mexico is essential for us, because our main U.S. audience is of Mexican origin,” said Patricio Wills, president of Telemundo Studios, which now comprise studio facilities in Colombia, Miami and Mexico City, and have the ability to produce up to 10 original telenovelas each year.
El Engaño, which will be broadcast in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2008, will be taped in high definition and production will take place in location in the states of Hidalgo, Querétaro and Mexico City. It is executive produced by Estudios Mexicanos Telemundo creative VP Maria Catalina Kennedy and directed by José Acosta Navas and Mauricio Meneses.
Though the two lead actors, Fernando Carrillo and Gaby Espino, are of Venezuelan descent, most of the remaining cast is Mexican. “Unlike Azteca and Televisa, which make telenovelas for the Mexican audience in Mexico, we focus on doing novelas for Mexicans living in the U.S.,” said Wills.
El Engaño is scheduled to run for 130 episodes, but as Wills said, it can run “until ratings do us part.”
Located in southern Mexico City, Telemundo’s new Ajusco studios employ over 150 people, and according to a company spokesperson, it required an investment of “several million dollars” in infrastructure. The facility comes to complement Telemundo’s content production estimated at 1,200 hours of original content each year, making it the second-largest producer of Spanish-language content after Grupo Televisa.
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